James Mitchell Ashley

James Mitchell Ashley (14 November 1824-16 September 1896) was a member of the US House of Representatives (R-OH 5) from 4 March 1859 to 3 March 1863 (succeeding Richard Mott and preceding Francois Celeste Le Blond) and from OH 10 from 4 March 1863 to 3 March 1869 (succeeding Carey A. Trimble and preceding Truman H. Hoag), as well as Governor of the Montana Territory from 9 April 1869 to 12 July 1870 (succeeding Green Clay Smith and preceding Benjamin Franklin Potts).

Biography
James Mitchell Ashley was born in Allegheny County, Pennsylvania in 1824, and he ran away from home at the age of 14 to avoid being forced into the Baptist ministry, working as a cabin boy on Ohio and Mississippi River boats. He began to help slaves escape from captivity in 1839, becoming a staunch abolitionist. In 1848, he settled in Portsmouth, Ohio, and he opened a drug store in Toledo in 1851. He became involved with the new Republican Party, and he served in the US House of Representatives from 1859 to 1869. He became a leader among the Radical Republicans, and he introduced and managed the bill that would become the Thirteenth Amendment, which formally abolished slavery. During Reconstruction, he suspected President Andrew Johnson of being behind Abraham Lincoln's assassination and of having ties to southern oligarchs. In 1868, his radical views led to him losing re-election, but President Ulysses S. Grant appointed him Governor of the Democrat-leaning Montana Territory in 1869, serving until 1870. He later worked in the railroad business, and he died in 1896.